Solo Practice

At the time of this post my firm will be just over two weeks from adding another attorney, which will move me from the true solo category to the small firm category.  While that may be technically true I still find that many of the principles of solo practice are applicable to the two attorney firm.  In the end the business of law does not change all that much except for the additional oversight and things like payroll.  But the structure of my soon-to-be two attorney firm will be more like a combination of two solos than it will be a traditional law firm set-up.  However, we will fall under one firm umbrella and I will initially shoulder much of the responsibility.  I have chosen to do this for a couple of reasons, which I mentioned in a previous post titled Decision 2008:  Add Staff, Associate or Partner.  One reason I did not mention specifically was that I am looking forward to having a good friend and a good lawyer join my firm to provide stability and room for growth to the practice.  By stability I mean the ability to take on additional work and to ensure that someone is able to cover if something should happen to me.  By growth I am referring to the expansion of my firm's practice areas to include intellectual property and more business and commercial law services.  I am a niche practitioner since I really only handle matters related to estate planning, tax, probate, trust administration and elder law.  My colleague allows me to offer additional services without having to be a jack of all trades.

The start date is all but written in stone as I write this post.  Right around the middle of March the quick transition from solo to two attorneys will happen seemingly in the middle of the night.  It is kind of similar to the way Robert Irsay moved the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis between 2:00 AM and 3:00AM in 1984, but without the negative connotation.   Let's hope we don't have to wait  23 years to win our Super Bowl.